Back in the 1960s, the original Star Trek series predicted many technological advances that are commonplace today, including mobile communications and talking computers. But one thing Gene Roddenberry and company never anticipated about future conveniences was our decidedly inconvenient TV ecosystem, where watching your favorite shows requires subscriptions to endless streaming services.
Nevertheless, that future is here. And because the field of services competing for your attention and money is increasingly more crowded, each one needs to distinguish itself with franchise-friendly fare that will keep subscribers from canceling after they binge whatever show they signed up for. Disney Plus has Star Wars. HBO has its Game of Thrones spinoff. You get the idea.
For CBS All Access, that franchise is Star Trek, whose latest entry—Star Trek: Picard—beams onto the subscription-based service on Thursday. The highly anticipated (for Trekkies) series has Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Jean-Luc Picard and imagines the character years after he’s left Starfleet.
Picard is back?! How can I watch?
Star Trek envisioned a future without money, but you will definitely need it if you want to watch Picard’s return to the small screen. The series is exclusive to CBS All Access, which costs $6 a month at minimum and $10 a month for the commercial-free version. Here are a few ways to sign up:
- CBS All Access via CBS.com
- CBS All Access on Amazon Channels
- CBS All Access on Apple TV Channels
- CBS All Access apps for Roku Players, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Fire TV, Samsung Smart TVs, Vizio Smartcast TVs
The good news is, you can probably get a promotional week of All Access for free if you haven’t signed up before. The bad news? No freebies unless you sign up. A spokesperson for CBS says the network will not be releasing any free episodes of Picard, at least not right now.
That’s probably because it doesn’t have to: Star Trek is a franchise with a built-in global audience, and Captain Picard, one of its most enduring characters, hasn’t been seen since 2002. For fans, there’s a pent-up anticipation here that mirrors what Disney enjoyed with its first Star Wars movie in 2015.
I live in Canada. Where can I watch?
According to CBS, Canadians can catch Picard on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and the streaming service Crave.
What about the rest of the world?
If you live overseas, you’re in luck. CBS says it will stream Picard on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories.
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